Proverbial poetry: its settings and syntax
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to nail down the structure of the line, which he did admirably. 3J. J. Gluck, "Assonance in Ancient Hebrew Poetry: Sound Patterns as a Literary Device," in De Fructu Oris Sui: Essays in Honour of Adrianus van Selms, ed I. H. Eybers et al. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971), p. 78. Percy G. Adams, "The Historical Importance of Assonance to Poets," Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 88 (1973):16. Cf. Bruno Hildebrandt, "Linguistic Analysis of Sound and Rhyme in Poetry," in Papers from the Alliteration may be designated as phonological repetition.1 It is a device used to heighten the feeling of sameness in a text, thereby expressing its cohesive unity in phonetic form. In short, alliteration is a synthesis of sound and sense. There is need for a standardization of terminology. Pardee observes the disparity between the definition of alliteration in the
accented syllables in a verse with the same consonant or consonantal group" and a broader definition, which is reflected in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, allowing for "any repetition of the same sound(s) or syllable in two or more words of a line (or line group), which produces a noticeable artistic effect."2 This study will operate under the broader description. Thus, Shakespeare's play on initial alliteration in the ____________________ 1977 Mid-America Lingusitics Conference, ed. D. M. Lance and D. E. Gulstad (Columbia, MS: University of Missouri, 1978), p. 454.
Lehman's Papers," in The Scope of American Linguistics, ed. Robert Austerlitz (Lisse: The Peter De Ridder Press, 1975), p. 60. Where the phonaesthetic pattern "slide, slip, slouch, slime, slush, sludge, slither, slink, sleek, etc." is noted. 2Pardee, "Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry: Parallelism," p. 31, n. 57. A. Preminger, F. J. Warnke, and O. B. Hardison, ed. Princeton Encylopedia of Poetry and
15. Cf. also P. Kiparsky, "Linguistics in a Theory of Poetry," pp. 241-42.
medial alliteration of "that brave vibration" of Robert Herrick.1 Final alliteration forms a type of rhyme:
Made with no loss of time. A prose kinema, not assuredly, alabaster Or the 'sculpture' of rhyme. Fussell reiterates how "plaster" and "alabaster" are drawn together by the end alliteration (rhyme) for comparison in sound and also for semantic contrast.2 Such close reading should be beneficially employed in the analysis of biblical poetry. Multiple unit repetitions may also reverse the order of vowels and consonants. While little more than a simple mentioning of this phenomenon has appeared in biblical studies, the work of Margalit has not only demonstrated this feature in Ugaritic but has also circumscribed parameters for discovering it elsewhere.3 He suggests that:
least three times per seven verse-unit verse; and/or (b) twice in a single word or once in each of two adjacent words (especially at the beginning); and/or (c) as a repeated sequence of two or more adjacent ____________________ 1Examples are taken from the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, pp. 15, 16. 2Paul Fussell, Poetic Meter and Poetic Form (New York: Random House, 1979), pp. 110-11. 3Margalit, "Introduction to Ugaritic Prosody," pp. 310-13. Pardee also confirms this in his Ugaritic studies restricting it to a consonantalism. ("Type and Distributions of Parallelism in Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry," p. 5).
necessarily in the scope of a single word.1 O'Connor offers a parsimonious caution that alliteration should not be confused with word repetition and that prefix and suffix repetitions be taken cum granis
alliteration may be seen as a repetitional feature, this writer, while observing O'Connor's caution from his poetically sensitive perspective, suggests that the repetition of certain words appear to be selected as much on the basis of phonetics as semantics, as will be shown perhaps in Proverbs 11:7-12 with the repeated use of the preposition בְּ. Gluck is correct when he states, "Alliteration is part of many proverbs and popular idioms, reinforcing a truism with a chime."3 One tenet of this paper will be to demonstrate the use of this device in the proverbial text. This scheme of phonetic repetition was used not only to scintillate aesthetically, but also like other forms of repetition, to provide a linguistic cohesion on the intra- and inter-line level, as well as on the "strophic" levels of the proverbial ____________________
311. Cf. O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 143. 2O'Connor, "The Rhetoric of the Kilamuwa Inscription," BASOR 226 (1977):16, 17. 3Gluck, "Assonance in Ancient Hebrew Poetry: Sound Patterns as a Literary Device," p. 78. His examples include Prov 6:2; 11:1a, 22a; 13:3a, 12; 14:1. sentence literature. Assonance is an artistic use of vowel repetition in stressed syllables of adjacent words.1 Adams notes that, in general, alliteration (consonance) is more noticeable.2 Gluck shows that assonance in passages such as Isaiah 1:18-20 and 5:2 is often supportive of alliterative (consonantal) features.3 Because of the problem with Hebraic vocalization and the tendency of vowels to change with time, one must be cautious about this aspect of phonological repetition.4 This feature will not be systematically studied in the corpus. Another sound pattern which is used with great effect is paronomasia. Gluck provides a brilliant article in which he distinguishes six types of this trope in Isaiah. While this form of word play or punning is often regarded as a mark of doltishness in modern culture it was ____________________ 1Edward P. J. Corbett, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student (New York: Oxford Universtiy Press, 1971), pp. 471-72. 2Adams, "The Historical Importance of Assonance to Poets," p. 8. 3Gluck, "Assonance in Ancient Hebrew Poetry: Sound Patterns as a Literary Device," pp. 82-83. 4Adams, "The Historical Importance of Assonance to Poets," p. 8. Pardee ("Types of Distributions of Parallelism in Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry," p. 5) has tried his hand at vocalization of Ugaritic texts looking for assonance and has "come up with very little on vowel patterning." not so regarded in ancient Israel.1 A thorough investigation of this trope has not been performed in the proverbial corpus. However, a few examples from a cursory examination of the text should suggest the fruitfulness of such an approach. (1) The equivocal pun, where a single grapheme may have two diverse semantic meanings (double entendre) which are played upon (Prov 3:3, 8; 6:2). An example is provided by Moffatt who manifests this feature in his translation of Proverbs 10:6b and 10:11b. The Hebrew colon is exactly the same; yet in one he takes as "to cover" and in the other as "to conceal." His suggestion accommodates the context and influence of the bi-colon rather than just the clausal context.2 Another possible case may be seen in the Revised Standard Version of Proverbs 11:7, where אוֹנִים is translated "iniquity" rather than "power" or "strength."3 (2) The metaphony creates ambiguity by the mutation of vowels (Isa 1:29). (3) Parasony interchanges a consonant resulting in an unexpected meaning (Isa 1:28). (4) Farrago refers to ____________________ 1Gluck, "Paronomasia in Biblical Literature," Semitics 1 (1970):52. In a footnote, Gluck notes the pun: "The bun is the lowest form of wheat" (The pun is the lowest form of wit) (p. 52). Cf. also A. Guillaume, "Paronomasia in the Old Testament," JSS 9 (1964):282-90. 2James Moffatt, A New Translation of the Bible (New York: Harper and Brothers Pub., 1922). 3BDB, p. 20. words which sound chaotic from their semantic content, but which produce an imagery nevertheless (Isa 8:1; 28:10). The word play on diverse and unexpected meanings may be seen in Proverbs 10:2, where "treasures" and "riches" are said to be of no "value." This play focuses on the contrast between the wicked, for whom normally positive things are of no profit, and the righteous, for whom even the negative experience of death is escapable. (5) Associative puns twist diction by taking two components, which are normally not associated, and juxtaposing them in order to create new imagery (e.g., uncircumcised of heart Lev. 26:41). An example of this type may be seen in Proverbs 10:21, where it is the lips of the righteous which feed many, rather than, the usual conception that lips should be fed. (6) Assonantic puns are word plays which are accompanied by a recurrence of sound, thus catching the ear and binding the significant words together phonetically (Isa 7:13-14; 24:17). A possible example may be seen in Proverbs 10:5 where a is added to בַּקַיִץ (in summer), thus resulting in בַּקָּצִיר (in harvest). This causes the reader to reflect on slothful sleep of one who slumbers, even through the time when all helpers are needed (harvest), as compared to the industriousness of the diligent, who is sedulous with productive labor even during the slow summer season. So, too, in Proverbs 11:13 there is an assonantic play with the words מְגַלֶּה־סּוֹד (spreads a secret) and מְכַסֶּה דָבָר (hides a matter), where a secret (סוֹד) which is spread is alliteratively linked to the concealing of a דָּבָר which is normally open to be proclaimed. Thus the assonance reveals that the ordering of the participles should have been reversed. In Proverbs 11:18, שֶׁקֶר (deceptive) and שֶׂכֶר (wages) are sound-bound. They unite the bi-colon via a common sound but have diverse and contrastive meanings. That is, the wages of the wicked are deceptive but he who sows righteousness obtains true wages. These words emphasize the contrast between the results of the wicked, who seek only money and get deceptive wages, and those who sow righteousness, who actually get that which is desired by the wicked: wages. A final phonetic feature of poetry is onomatopoeia--the formation of words to sound like that which they describe (Ps 93:4; Judg 5:22).1 While this trope is not overly abundant in Proverbs, it does occur. For example, in Proverbs 10:18 the soft hissing of the malignant murmurer may be heard in the repeated silibants which are graphemically written by three different letters ( ס, שׂ, שׁ). ____________________ 1Gottwald, "Poetry, Hebrew," p. 835. In summary, it has been shown that phonetic features are important both in terms of the poet's endeavor to use sound patterns creatively and of the audience's expectations. Cognizance of these devices will lead the reader to a more complete picture of the poetic moment. In a day when Hebrew in America is so poorly read orally, the reminder of the importance of phonetic features for composition and audience response suggests that the oral reading of Hebrew is not done simply for purist or pedantically pedagogical reasons but for aesthetic and exegetical reasons as well. The systems of meter were discussed in order to point out the superiority of replacing the muddled maze of meter with a more descriptively verifiable system of syntax. A syntactical base should not eliminate stress patterns, phonological schemes, and tropes from a close reading of the text, but should help define the most basic unit, i.e., the line itself.
Semantic Parallelism The discussion of the history of the notion of parallelism as applied to Hebrew poetry has been developed ____________________
(Ibn Ezra and Kimchi), 201-3 (dei Rossi). Cf. also A. Baker, "Parallelism: England's Contribution to Biblical Studies," CBQ 35 (1973):433-36. Kugel also treats the work exhaustively in Kugel's Idea of Biblical Poetry. Lowth was obviously anticipated by Jewish scholars like Azariah dei Rossi, David Kimchi and Ibn Ezra. Kugel does an excellent job specifying precisely how each contributed to the overall historical development of this idea.1 For purposes of this study, the discussion will proceed as follows: (1) an enumeration of Lowth's model; (2) modifications at the hands of Gray, Robinson et al.; (3) exploration of other semantic descriptions; (4) the problems of this type of semantic approach; and (5) other semantic line binders (word pairs; repetitions; merismus, etc.). The intention is not to reiterate all that has been done on this subject, but is merely to illustrate how this system looks at poetry, to point out its flaws, and then to indicate the direction that may preserve a semantic approach. This approach to poetry is being assaulted and/or neglected by those of the metrical and syntactic schools. Lowth's insight was not that parallelism was employed in poetry, for many had seen and classified it as a trope or figure. Rather, for Lowth, parallelism was no mere ornament; it was an evidence of lineation.1 Lowth ____________________ of Lowth in relation to his contemporary Schoettgen whose ten rules and use of rhetoric were a foretaste many of Lowth's "discoveries" yet avoided many of the Lowthian problems (Kugel, Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 266-72.)
defined parallelism as "The correspondence of one verse or line with another."1 Normal definitions mention parallelism of thought and sense between lines perhaps adding that the word units in one line will usually be answered in the corresponding line.2 Hence von Rad speaks of a "stereometric" way of thinking.3 More recently, two different definitions (approaches) have been beneficial. Kugel has generalized the concept by acknowledging that the symmetry between the two lines may range from one-hundred percent correspondence (repetition) to zero correspondence. He describes the relationship of the colon as: "parallelistic not because B is meant to be a parallel of A, but because B typically supports A, carries it further, backs it up, completes it, goes beyond it."4 Thus B has a "what's more" character in relation to A, and may take many semantic shapes.5 Most would agree with ____________________ 1R. Lowth, Isaiah. A new translation; with a preliminary dissertation (London: Charles R. and George Webster, 1794), p. x. Cited from Baker, "Parallelism: England's Contribution to Biblical Studies," p. 431.
of such a trope to thought patterns is a bit presumptuous linguistically and demonstrates the need for an integration of recent linguistic poetics and wisdom studies. 4Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 7, 52. 5Ibid., pp. 43, 57. For a similar conception vid. Adele Berlin's superb article, "Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism," p. 41. Greenstein: Biblicists have for centuries used the term 'parallelism' to refer to the repetition of the components of one line of verse in the following line or lines. It could be a repetition of sense, or words, or sound, or rhythm, or morphology, or syntax, or any combination of these.1 While O'Connor's major contribution has already been mentioned, his designation of semantic parallelism as a trope rather than as the sole feature of poetry--is also of great significance.2 It is well known that Lowth divided parallelism into: synonymous, antithetic, and synthetic. These categories have been understood as follows. Anderson defines synonymous parallelism, as being "where the same thought is repeated by the other line, in different but synonymous words."3 An example may be seen in Proverbs 16:18: ____________________ 1Greenstein, "How Does Parallelism Mean?" p. 43. 2O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 88, 96; 3A. A. Anderson, Psalms, vol. 1, New Century Bible ed. R. E. Clements and M. Black (Greenwood, SC: the Attic Press, Inc., 1977), p. 41; he follows G. B. Gray, The Forms of Hebrew Poetry, The Library of Biblical Studies, ed. H. M. Orlinsky (New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1972 reprint), pp. 49, 59. Cf. also Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72:
IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1973), p. 3; and Leopold Sabourin, The Psalms: Their Origin and Meaning, p. 26. These, as well as other sources which could have been cited, are to demonstrate the prolific acceptance of Lowth's categories. Pride goes before destruction, A haughty spirit [goes] before a fall.1 This is usually diagrammed A B C//A' B' C' where A and A' (and so forth) are synonyms. Similarly, antithetic parallelism is described as balancing "the parallel lines through opposition or contrast of thought."2 Hatred stirs up dissension Love covers over all wrong (Prov 10:12). Again, the terms may be matched (A B C// A' B' C'). Finally, synthetic parallelism has been largely rejected today, although it is still found in some noteworthy scholarly commentaries. Synthetic parallelism occurs when the second line continues (rather than repeats or contrasts) the thought of the first line. Many have objected to its being called parallelism at all. Gottwald designates it as "formal parallelism" because the thoughts are not strictly parallel, though there is allegedly a parallelism in form.3 ____________________
English without Hebrew accompaniment. 2Anderson, Psalms, p. 41. Cf. also Toy, Proverbs, ICC (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1904); C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, vol. 6 Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1973 reprint), p. 8; McKane,
and Co., 1929), p. xiv. 3Gottwald, "Poetry, Hebrew," p. 832. Hemmingsen provides a very concise discussion of all three in "An Introduction to Hebrew Poetic Structure and Stylistic Techniques," pp. 14-25. It is interesting that McKane The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble with it (Prov 10:22).
hands of G. B. Gray (1915). With Gray and T. H. Robinson, the movement was away from any metrical allowances to a strictly parallelistic approach--which is ultimately reflected in Young's metrical nihilism.1 Not only was there a de-emphasis of meter, but also the notion of parallelism itself was restricted to a thought or a semantic unit phenomenon which "controls the form which every line of Hebrew poetry takes."2 A new addition to the classifications was the idea of complete/incomplete parallelism with/without compensation. Complete ____________________ still accepts this category (Proverbs, p. 463), which again illustrates the need to connect poetic studies and the text of Proverbs. An interesting chart, giving the frequencies of the various types of parallelisms in Proverbs by chapter is found in Robert Chisholm's, "Literary Genres and Structures in Proverbs," A Paper Presented to Prof. Donald Glenn at Dallas Theological Seminary (May, 1980), p. 36. Cf. Stuart S. Cook, "The Nature and Use of the Proverbs of Solomon" (Th.M. thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1975), pp. 35-36; von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 29; Thompson, The Form and Function of Proverbs, pp. 61-62; and a summarizing chart by Udo Skladny, Die altesten Spruchsammlungen in Yüklə 6,58 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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